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The Rails Girls Are Coming to a City Near You (Video)
So far, the Rails Girls have groups in cities ranging from Warsaw to Wellington, with U.S. gatherings in Washington D.C., Charlotte NC, San Francisco CA, and... let's make it easy: Here's a map. OMG! They're everywhere! Actually, mostly Europe, being as they started in Finland, same as the Leningrad Cowboys and a popular computer operating system. But they're spreading like mad. Would you believe the reason one of the two founders originally got interested in Ruby on Rails was because she wanted to make a fan page for American politician Al Gore? Our interviewee, Magda (from Rails Girls Warsaw), swears this is true. She also tells us about their upcoming Washington D.C. workshop on June 13th, 2013, in conjunction with the June 14-15 RubyNation event. Sounds like fun, doesn't it. Maybe you need more of this kind of fun where you live, eh? If there isn't a Rails Girls group near you, maybe you should start one and help more women and girls get into programming. This is the Rails Girls' goal. Any particular ages? Not really. And their workshops are all free of charge: "You just need to be excited!"
Can you imagine if I set up a 'Rails Whites' group or a 'Rails African Americans' group? This is no different.
What lost me was when I clicked on the link and the page was covered in pencil doodles of kitties and ponies and crap. If you are trying to make it with a fricking band at least TRY to look somewhat professional, that thing looks like it was made by a 16 year old Twitard to declare whether they are with team shirtless or team shovelface...ugh.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I can understand the desire by many to attract more women into the CS/software dev field. I'm just not sure if the right way to do it is to emphasize one-gender-only programs. It seems to erode the basis of one of the more public goals; that women in the CS field be treated as equals with males in the CS field(*), while admittedly fulfilling other goals.
We already know how 'separate but equal' turns out.
I note above there's already a misogynistic note - even though it's just a joke - that some people are only interested if they're naked, so maybe there's a point anyway, at least in the short term.
Misogyny is all the rage in tech, gaming, and rationalist communities. I have no idea why, but I wish they'd tone it down.
Required reading for internet skeptics